On December 21 of 2018, Donald Trump signed the First Step Act into law. This piece of legislation has been marked by some as a massive breakthrough in criminal justice reform. The bill is intended to “ensure people are prepared to come home from prison job-ready and have major incentives to pursue the life-changing classes […]
Predatory Preparers: Exploitation Through Tax Returns
For most adults in the United States, the year starts with the tax season. During this time, they have their tax returns prepared and filed and either pay any taxes they owe or receive a refund if they overpaid their taxes throughout the prior year. This year, the tax season began on January 28 and […]
Accessibility and Education
For most people, the importance of the right to an education is not unknown. It’s through education that people gain the skills that they need to be active in their communities, join the workforce, and live their daily lives. While there is certainly division in regard to people’s ideas of exactly how systems of education should work, there continues […]
The Generations of Human Rights
When human rights are being discussed, they are often divided up into three categories called generations. A reflection of the three generations of human rights can be seen in the popular phrase of the French Revolution: liberté, egalité, fraternité. These generations of human rights were first formally established by Karel Vasak, a Czech jurist, in […]
Amendment Four: Voting Restoration In Florida
On November 6, 2018, Florida voted on the Voting Restoration Ballot (also known as Amendment 4) and restored the right to vote of over one million citizens of the state. This is a true success in the improvement of access to voting rights in America. As a country, we have come a long way in terms of […]
Children’s Rights in the United States
Despite the many different viewpoints that exist on the political spectrum within the United States, one of the few things we all seem to be able to generally agree on is the importance of protecting children. Their life and well-being completely rely on adults actively working to keep them safe and nurture them. On September […]
The Impact of Child Abuse
Childhood is a time in life that should be filled with joy and imagination, and free of fear and any serious responsibility. However, for many people, this not their reality, as abuse and trauma have warped their experience of it. In 2014, about 702,000 children were found to be victims of some form of abuse […]
Sexual Assault on College Campuses
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three women and one in six men have experienced sexual violence . The term sexual assault refers to “any type of sexual activity or contact that happens without your consent.” Though, the most obvious examples of sexual assault are physical, such as rape and unwanted touching, it can also […]
The Plastic Problem
The world is built to run on cycles. The water-cycle. The food-cycle. The carbon-cycle. The resources on Earth exist to be used and reused. At some point, humanity lost sight of that, our eyes drawn to the concept of disposability. Now we must face the consequences. Think for a moment: when garbage day comes, how […]
The Re-segregation of Schools
**Today is the 64th anniversary of the landmark Brown v Board of Education decision. The decision acknowledged and established the unconstitutionality of the notion “separate but equal”. This blog is a repost from the fall. What do you think of when you hear the word “segregation”? You probably flash back to your high school history […]